Render Copyright unto Caesar: On Taking Incentives Seriously

Gordon, Wendy J.

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Render Copyright unto Caesar: On Taking Incentives Seriously

University of Chicago Law Review, Vol. 71, No. 75, 2004

20 Pages Posted: 1 Jun 2020

See all articles by Wendy J. Gordon

Wendy J. Gordon

Boston University School of Law

Date Written: 2004

Abstract

This Essay suggests we bifurcate our thinking. Conventional copyright rules by money, so let it rule the money-bound. Let a different set of rules evolve for more complex uses, particularly when the users have a personal relationship with the utilized text. Much recent scholarship contains dramatic suggestions to secure a freedom to be creative, rewrite, and be imaginative. My work has long sought to defend such freedoms, but I believe we understand imagination and its conditions too little to employ it as a starting point. I suggest instead that we acquire a better conceptual map of the generative process and the mix of incentives that serve it.

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Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Gordon, Wendy J., Render Copyright unto Caesar: On Taking Incentives Seriously (2004). University of Chicago Law Review, Vol. 71, No. 75, 2004, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3590322